SIx In The Morning Thursday November 6

6 November 2014 Last updated at 06:14

Ebola outbreak: UN 'lacks resources' to fight deadly virus

The head of the UN mission charged with fighting Ebola has told the BBC he does not yet have the resources necessary to defeat the deadly disease.

Tony Banbury said more help was urgently needed, despite significant contributions from Britain, China, Cuba and the US.

He was speaking after visiting the three nations worst hit by the virus - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The confirmed death toll is now 4,818, says the World Health Organization.

All but 27 of the deaths have been in the three West African nations.

Obama's request

Mr Banbury was speaking at the UN headquarters for Ebola response in Ghana, which has not been affected by the epidemic but is near to the three worst-affected countries.

Alexei Devotchenko: Russian actor and outspoken Putin critic found dead 'in a pool of blood' in Moscow

Alexei Devotchenko was discovered in his apartment on Wednesday

HEATHER SAUL 

 

 

Thursday 06 November 2014

A well-known Russian actor and vocal critic of PresidentVladimir Putin has been found dead at his home in Moscow.

The body of Alexei Devotchenko was discovered in his apartment on Wednesday evening, The Telegraph has reported.

The circumstances of his death remain unclear. Some Russian news outlets said he was discovered in a pool of blood in his apartment, while others claimed he was found inside his home.

The online tabloid Lifenews reported that Mr Devotchenko hit a glass cabinet with his hands and died of blood loss after sustaining severe cuts in the incident. It said empty bottles of whiskey and packets of phenazepam, a legal Russian drug prescribed to treat epilepsy, were discovered near his body.

AC/DC drummer accused of attempting to procure murder

Phil Rudd (60) could face up to 10 years in jail after New Zealand court appearance

AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has been charged with attempting to procure murder, threatening to kill and possession of narcotics.

The 60-year-old Australian entered no plea to the charges during a brief court appearance in Tauranga, about 200 km southeast of Auckland.

He was remanded on bail with restrictions on his movements and ordered to re-appear in court on November 27th, a court official said.

Mr Rudd could face up to 10 years jail if convicted of the most serious charge of attempting to procure murder.

Police arrested Mr Rudd, whose birth name is Phil Witschke, during a raid on his home earlier today. The raid followed a tip off from a member of the public, police said.

The Red Canal: Uncertainties Surround Nicaragua's New Waterway Project

By Jens Gluesing

Nicaragua is soon to begin construction on a new canal connecting the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. But even as up to 30,000 people face resettlement, details on the Chinese-funded mega-project remain sparse.

Wearing orange overalls and sun hats, the Chinese arrived in Río Brito by helicopter before being escorted by soldiers to the river bank -- right to the spot where José Enot Solís always throws out his fishing net. The Chinese drilled a hole into the ground, then another and another. "They punched holes all over the shore," the fisherman says. He points to a grapefruit-sized opening in the mud, over one meter deep. Next to it lie bits of paper bearing Chinese writing. Aside from that, though, there isn't much else to see of the monumental and controversial project that is to be built here: The Interoceanic Grand Canal, a second shipping channel between the Atlantic and Pacific.

The waterway is to stretch from Río Brito on the Pacific coast to the mouth of the Punta Gorda river on the Caribbean coast. Beyond that, though, curiously little is known about the details of the project. Only Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his closest advisors know how much money has already been invested, what will happen with the people living along the route and when the first construction workers from China arrive. Studies regarding the environmental and social impact of the undertaking don't exist.

In Southeast Iran, mourning the cost of a Sunni insurgency

A long-running Sunni insurgency based over the border in Pakistan's Baluchistan has left an indelible mark on an impoverished corner of Iran. President Rouhani has promised to improve the lot of citizens.

By Scott Peterson, Staff writer

ZAHEDAN, IRAN — Draped in elegant dark robes and with reverent steps, the woman walks past scores of gravestones set flat in the ground – part of the toll from more than a decade of a slow-burn Sunni insurgency. 

In this cemetery near Iran’s remote border with Pakistan and Afghanistan and beside high rocky hills, the desert wind blows Iranian flags above each grave, and rustles faded fragments of green cloth hung to protect every martyr’s portrait from bleaching by the sun.

No single death may mean much for Iran’s long battle with Pakistan-based Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice). But its insurgency, with its flashes of large-scale bloodletting in mosques and attacks against Iranian soldiers, has caused a chronic sense of insecurity in Sistan-Baluchistan Province, an impoverished Sunni tribal region.

Hong Kong democracy protesters in fresh clashes with police

 Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters clashed with police in the densely populated district of Mong Kok early on Thursday as tensions escalated at one of three remaining demonstration sites for the first time in more than two weeks.

Dozens of police armed with batons and shields swept into the area where hundreds of protesters were gathered and scuffles broke out after 2am local time in the gritty district that has become a flashpoint for ugly street brawls.

More than 30 people wearing grinning masks of Guy Fawkes, who plotted to kill a British king in 1605 and who has become a symbol of anti-capitalist protests, joined the demonstrators who are calling for greater democracy in the former British colony.